Edward Everett

Edward Everett (11 April 1794-15 January 1865) was a member of the US House of Representatives (NR-MA 4) from 4 March 1825 to 3 March 1835 (succeeding Timothy Fuller and preceding Samuel Hoar), Governor (W) from 13 January 1836 to 18 January 1840 (succeeding Samuel Turell Armstrong and preceding Marcus Morton), a US Senator from 4 March 1853 to 1 June 1854 (succeeding John Davis and preceding Julius Rockwell), and US Secretary of State from 6 November 1852 to 4 March 1853 (succeeding Charles Magill Conrad and preceding William L. Marcy).

Biography
Edward Everett was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1794, the son of a pastor, and he was educated at Harvard before ministering at Boston's Brattle Street Church and teaching at Harvard. He studied in Europe and taught ancient Greek literature for years before becoming involved in politics, becoming an extensive and popular speaking career. He served in the US House of Representatives from 1825 to 1835 and as Governor from 1836 to 1840, serving as a National Republican and as a Whig. As governor, he introduced the first state board of education in the nation. He lost in the 1839 election by just one vote, and he went on to serve as ambassador to Britain from 1841 to 1845. In 1849, he became an assistant to Secretary of State Daniel Webster, a friend and colleague of his, and, following Webster's death, he served as Secretary of State for a few months before being elected to the US Senate. Everett supported efforts to maintain the union before the American Civil War, running as the Constitutional Union Party's vice presidential candidate in 1860. However, he supported the Union war effort, and he backed Abraham Lincoln in the 1864 election. He died in 1865.